NeuroTypical

Yeah, don't expect such challenges to go away any time soon.  We had Elder Dube of the 70 come and speak to our stake, and he issued the same challenge - that we start the BoM from the beginning, devote 10 in a day to it until we finish the book.  He's a funny personable guy originally from Zimbabwe.  Speaking in broken English, he extended the challenge and asked if everyone would accept.  When we gave a lackluster response, he grinned and said "Oh brothers and sisters - mebbe I have them lock the doors and I preach at you until daylight.  Now will you accept this challenge?"
I accepted, even though I am currently in the middle of my own personal scripture reading program, and his would throw it off.  I plan to keep doing mine, which is 5 chapters a week, no matter how long or short, which I started 6 months ago.  I figure as long as I'm doing something that roughly encompasses the challenge, that the Lord will be merciful when I'm judged for shouting 'yes' so he wouldn't lock the doors, even though it meant agreeing to something I am only tangentially going to follow.
If I stop posting, it's because I got hit by lightning.

Yeah, don't expect such challenges to go away any time soon.  We had Elder Dube of the 70 come and speak to our stake, and he issued the same challenge - that we start the BoM from the beginning, devote 10 in a day to it until we finish the book.  He's a funny personable guy originally from Zimbabwe.  Speaking in broken English, he extended the challenge and asked if everyone would accept.  When we gave a lackluster response, he grinned and said "Oh brothers and sisters - mebbe I have them lock the doors and I preach at you until daylight.  Now will you accept this challenge?"
I accepted, even though I am currently in the middle of my own personal scripture reading program, and his would throw it off.  I plan to keep doing mine, which is 5 chapters a week, no matter how long or short, which I started 6 months ago.  I figure as long as I'm doing something that roughly encompasses the challenge, that the Lord will be merciful when I'm judged for shouting 'yes' so he wouldn't lock the doors, even though it meant agreeing to something I am only tangentially going to follow.
If I stop posting, it's because I got hit by lightning.

Yeah, don't expect such challenges to go away any time soon.  We had Elder Dube of the 70 come and speak to our stake, and he issued the same challenge - that we start the BoM from the beginning, devote 10 in a day to it until we finish the book.  He's a funny personable guy originally from Zimbabwe.  Speaking in broken English, he extended the challenge and asked if everyone would accept.  When we gave a lackluster response, he grinned and said "Oh brothers and sisters - mebbe I have them lock the doors and I preach at you until daylight.  Now will you accept this challenge?"
I accepted, even though I am currently in the middle of my own personal scripture reading program, and his would throw it off.  I plan to keep doing mine, which is 5 chapters a week, no matter how long or short, which I started 6 months ago.  I figure as long as I'm doing something that roughly encompasses the challenge, that the Lord will be merciful when I'm judged for shouting 'yes' so he wouldn't lock the doors, even though it meant agreeing to something I am only tangentially going to follow.
If I stop posting, it's because I got hit by lightning.

.... still waiting for the good ending.

Yay embarrassing Christmas stories!
My wife and I were new to the ward.  We had wife's brother/his wife/their 2 yr old living with us for a while.  They would let us take 2 yr old wild child girl to church.   
Ward Christmas party - we actually did Santa that year.  Big line of kids, we get in line, the 2 yr old thinks "screw this" and runs past them all and jumps on Santa's lap.  (We'd been in the ward 2 months.)
A few weeks prior, this was the wild child who came running up the aisle during the sacrament and yelled "UNCLE [NT] I WENT PEE-PEE ON THE POTTY!!!" at the top of her lungs.
[The story ends well - said wild child got accepted to the U, and is now off posting the rockin'est selfies of any college chick ever.]

A few weeks ago in town there was interfaith Christmas singing event.  It was a HUGE success- my toddler and I showed up 15 minutes early, and there wasn't really even standing left.  But one of ushers saw us, and said "we have a spare seat upon in the front row, if you daughter wants to sit on your lap".  Very grateful, I followed the usher up.  The Episcopalian Cathedral we were in is hands down the most gorgeous church in town- beautiful 1800's stained glass, graceful arches, amazing candle displays, and fantastic acoustics so that everyone in the cathedral can hear the people in the front row.     My daughter (who is an extremely timid child), found this all completely intimidating and when we went to sit down she screamed "NO!!!!! NO!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" at the top of her lungs..... remember what I said about those fantastic acoustics from the front row?   So so embarrassing.  And then on top of it, while she's doing her rag-doll tantrum, she's smack in the way of a grandpa who was filming his wife performing in the bell choir.   So so embarrassing.  Oh well, thankfully they were understanding about the whole thing.  Little girl settled down soon after (aided by a little distraction bribery), and three songs later was having good time.  Her favorite song was totally the Hallelujah Chorus.     All around it was a fantastic night, even though the embarrassment.  Got to sing of my love of my Savior, hear other people's love too, and has a good millionth reminder of how grateful I am when someones else's kid screams louder than mine.  

Perhaps we are weird here? When I considering renting a room in a Mormon home when inactive, the sister said no alcohol etc. Others up here ask those who rent their basement apartments to obey Lds standards, no overnight opposite gender guests.
Perhaps the difference is that basement apartments are considered part of your home?
Actually, for a basement apartment with a separate entrance, asking someone to live Lds standards is likely illegal here ...so yes the Lds people are breaking the law. Oh dear! I guess we are not thinking things through!

Lol zil is now considered part of the herd by outsiders, just for being seen associating too closely with me.  The soul-consuming taint begins!
Hoof bump!
/)

That's an interesting take on things askandanswer.
I suppose the response is that the chances of someone being mistaken about whether the judge ordered the death or not, is pretty much zero, while the world is full of people off murdering in the names of their respective deities all the time.  

You just haven't seen it performed correctly.  
 

I was taught/trained to understand the word sex to refer to the physical characteristics and gender to refer to the more personality-ish characteristics, and also to understand that the only real relationship between the two is that men are more likely to be masculine and women are more likely to be feminine. Now when I read about trans people, because of the vocabulary used it almost always sounds to me like people are saying, "I am nurturing and sensitive and enjoy baking. Therefore, I must be a woman."

Lol zil is now considered part of the herd by outsiders, just for being seen associating too closely with me.  The soul-consuming taint begins!
Hoof bump!
/)

Lol zil is now considered part of the herd by outsiders, just for being seen associating too closely with me.  The soul-consuming taint begins!
Hoof bump!
/)

So, beyond seeing the toys and probably TV commercials (but not hearing the latter, since I like the Mute button), I know nothing about this whole MLP thing.  So, now I'm kind of obligated to follow the link, since NT is kind enough to give a home to one of my pens.  Naturally, I go to the first place anyone should go - "Meet the Characters" and I'm laughing. (Not mockingly, but amusedly.)  Spoiler Alert!  Equestria, Canterlot (ha!), Ponyville, anypony, everypony, The Carousel Boutique, Granny Smith (of the Apple family)  - and it appears NT didn't pick my pony (assuming it's not lost in a box) without giving it some thought.
But where are the boy ponies?  I see, girl toy, but seriously, do most girls really prefer their toy people / animals to all be female?  That just seems weird to me.  Apparently I preferred boy toys...

Oh, and @NeuroTypical, write out the full date at the top of the letter, like Wednesday, 13 December 2017 (cuz 35 years later, they're just not gonna remember when it was, but they'll want to know).

My dad acted the same way when I told him a military recruiter had offered to buy me lunch.

And so it begins.
Welcome to the madness.

Deal.  I get that fountain pens are to be handled with care.  PM'ing you now.  

What's MLP?
NOTE: FPs use liquid ink, not pasty stuff like ballpoints - fling it around and gravity will do its thing and pull the ink right on out.  So while there are fountain pens that will take physical abuse and then write just fine afterwards, you may have to clean up splattered ink when you uncap.  So if you're wanting to continue casual abuse and pen-throwing practices, you may not be very happy with a fountain pen.  In a bag, nib up is best.  Otherwise, horizontal.  Nib down is to be avoided unless writing or it's a problem pen.
Technically, a fountain pen will write just fine upside down or in zero gravity, as long as the ink remains in contact with the feed - depending on your filling system, this is easy or impossible.  FPs work by capillary action, so as long as the ink in the barrel is touching the end of the feed, said action will pull it to the nib, and paper will pull it from the nib.  (A fountain pen is a controlled leak.)
What I send you will likely have cost me less than $10, and is wasting time and space in my desk drawer.  You're doing me a favor.
I'll need to know if you write big or small (writing samples are nice, preferably on lined paper), and what color(s) ink you want.

Ok, Zil, sold.  My uncle the engineer gave me a fancy ball point when I graduated college, and I still use it 20 years later.  It's rugged, it writes upside-down, and it's still in one piece after being carted around in my bag all this time.  Maybe it's time to see how the elegant refined side of the fence lives.   I do indeed think about what I'm writing -with-, when I am writing something important.
Since you're basically trying to get me addicted here, I suggest a gift exchange.  Name your poison:
- My little Pony figure
- MLP fanmade artwork
- A thumb drive with public-domain MLP fanmade music, guaranteed to produce the feels.
(Fun fact: One of the characters in the show runs a "sofas and quills shop".)

That's a good idea zil.  The last letters I wrote them were when they went to YW camp - to be read as they wandered off in the woods to find quiet places to pray.  

I guess she married the cool clarinetist with the cool story about... whatever it was about. 
 

Speaking as someone who was a teenage girl once, they're interested, but incomplete brains, hormones, peer pressure, and such mandate that they pretend not to be - in very dramatic ways.  Want to get through all that?  Write them letters - handwritten is better (it's a piece of you, not an impersonal print-out with suspected copy and paste crap).  Put them in envelopes so they're easier to keep and read again later.  While I guess I can't make guarantees, I believe they will read these letters multiple times over their lives.  Maybe get them a box to keep important documents in - like birth certificates, marriage certificates, and letters from dad.  I love my letters from dad - there are few of them, but each is precious.

Megan McCardle tweets:  
 
Which elicits this response:
 
 
 

Well first of all, it isn't about you.  Or if it is, then go pat yourself on the back for being someone they're comfortable approaching with stuff.
What can you do for them?  That's easy.  Love them.  Ain't your job to fix them.  Might even not be your job to help them with these issues.  Or if it is, then the best way you can help them is to love them.  Let thy light so shine.
There's a lot of reasons someone might feel so far from the Lord that it causes problems.  And I hear a lot of testimonies from people who talk about making it through such times in their lives.
Don't freak out.  Love them.